<p>Numerous studies have investigated people’s normative attitudes toward inequality in contemporary China. However, few have examined the perceived level of income inequality and how it relates to perceptions of intergenerational income persistence (i.e., perceived immobility). Capitalizing on newly available data from a national online survey conducted in 2022, we investigated the perceived inequality in China, how it varies by socioeconomic status (SES), and how it is associated with perceptions of mobility. Our results show that (1) the average level of perceived inequality closely aligns with the actual level, (2) the high SES group perceives significantly higher inequality than the middle and lower SES groups, and (3) perceived inequality is significantly associated with perceived immobility. Interestingly, this association follows an inverted U-shaped pattern, with the middle SES group showing a greater tendency to associate a perceived increase in economic inequality with poor prospects for intergenerational mobility. Furthermore, these results remain largely consistent after reweighting the sample to match the key demographics of the latest census data.</p>